BERLIN – Two people were killed and at least six others injured in a stabbing on a train in northern Germany on Wednesday afternoon, an Interior Ministry spokeswoman said.
The attack happened just before 3 p.m. on a regional train traveling from the northern city of Kiel to Hamburg. Just before the train arrived in the town of Brokstedt, 40 miles north of Hamburg, a man began stabbing passengers, according to local news reports.
The attacker, a man described by authorities as between 20 and 40, was arrested at Brokstedt train station. Further information about the suspect was not immediately released. A motive was not immediately clear.
“It’s terrible,” said Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister of the Interior, Sabine Sütterlin-Waack, to the public broadcaster. “We are all completely shocked and appalled that something like this has happened.” She added in a statement, “It is clear to me that the horrific act is directed against all of humanity.”
The station was cordoned off while police investigated the incident. According to the national Deutsche Bahn, train traffic on the route was temporarily suspended.
The attack follows other recent deadly stabbings in the country, including one that killed a young girl in Illerkirchberg and another that killed three people in Würzburg.
